I am a recently admitted student at both schools with only St. John's offering a scholarship in the amount of 10k. I wanted to hear your opinions on the matter. I am attempting to leverage Syracuse into giving me some money, although I do not expect it to be more then $2,500 if any at all.

I think it is important to inform you I am from California and plan to move back after completing law school. SU appears to have a better alumni base in Cali than does St. John's. Also, i already put a $500 advance deposit on Syracuse.

These are the best two schools I have gotten into so far and I am torn.

0U812 wrote:That's not me, I just want you to know Syracuse and St. Johns are each excellent law schools.

You are wrong and the fact that you are spreading misinformation is bothersome.

If you regard law schools by what they teach, sure Syracuse and St. Johns are probably good at teaching law school curriculum. However, the point of law school is to be employed as a lawyer and that is something that these schools don't do very well. TLS is not prestige-obsessed because we are snobbish assholes, TLS is prestige obsessed because the legal field is prestige-obsessed. Prestige drives legal hiring and that is why spending tons of money on schools like Syracuse and St. Johns is a bad idea.

Loosey5 wrote:The thing is I am already a year out of undergrad and I need to make moves. I WANT to come back to California but if I get stuck in NY, then that's just the path life takes me.

I was also wait-listed at University of San Diego for their part-time program. Still waiting to hear back on that...

These schools are a bad idea for employment generally (though they are worse for CA, and USD is a bad idea as well). Check this out --LinkRemoved-- and notice that only about 60% of 2009 grads from these schools actually are employed as full time lawyers within 9 months of graduating. That doesn't even speak to whether or not they have jobs that can help them pay for sticker price debt, which is probably quite unlikely for the vast majority of those who ended up as full time lawyers.

You do not in fact "need to make moves." Your impatience will likely have you ending up unemployed or underemployed with a lot of debt if you go to either of these schools for this price.

There is an SU graduating 3L that is from California and trying to return to California. I haven't talked to him lately, but you should ask the admissions office to speak to some students who are going back after graduation. They're in a great position to share very relevant experience.

dont listen to people on here - if you do well academically wherever you attend you will be find - the percentages are so misleading - legions of grads go to big law and are laid off within their early years or realize its not for them or have difficult personalities that get discovered by their colleagues early on and get disposed of - I come from a large family of "big law" partners at major law firms in major cities and the conventional wisdom is being a "big fish in a small pond" will serve you well - I personally know many current law students at T14 schools who are in the middle of their class and have no job prospects while two fraternity brothers at Syracuse (on Law Review admittedly) have scored big firm jobs for the summer - go wherever the fit feels right for you and you will succeed...

caleb1717 wrote:dont listen to people on here - if you do well academically wherever you attend you will be find

The problem is that since law schools grade on a curve, there is no guarantee that anybody will do well academically. Since you have a roughly 50% chance of ending up below median, it is foolish to assume that you will do well.

waiting a year between undergrad and law school isnt that long- waiting 2 years isnt much longer. There are a lot of studetns from the west coast that go to Syracuse. I dont know about St. Johns. What you need to decide is the total cost of attendance. Syracuse will cost you 63,000 a year ( including cost of living). St.Johns may cost you around 54,000 ( 64,000 minus 10,000 scholarship) also including cost of attendance.

that is about 189,000 for all 3 years at SyracuseAssuming you keep the scholarship at St. Johns- 162,000 ( lose the scholarship then it rises to 192,000)

That is a ton of money for those schools.

Both of these schools have NY state as their primary places after graduation. If you want to go back to california- then all of the work falls on your shoulders. You will establish a network and ties at your law school- and if its not in the region you want to work in- then it will be all for naught, unless you are in the tippidy top of the class. If you want california- your best bet would be to go to a california school- and do whatever it takes to get you there. If not, and you are very much a west coast person- then apply to a school in a state that you will be happy and is nearby. If you were to score in the 158-160 range you will be in the runnning for a large scholarship to Syracuse ( as long as you write the essays on the application for it- and assuming of course your gpa is above a 3.0 If I were you- i would wait out this year and try again early next fall. Also- you need to keep in mind the cost of moving and finding a place to live. Moving cross country is expensive- and you need to factor that ( and the added stress of being far away from family) into your total cost of attendance and deciding actors. Best of luck!